Jason Maas is heading back to Edmonton most likely. Although a contract has yet to be offered and signed, you would have to think that Jason Maas is more than likely to sign with his former team. After helping to lead the 2nd year Ottawa Redblacks to the Grey Cup this season and with the sudden departure of Chris Jones and a large piece of the coaching staff with him, Maas a relative newbee to the coaching ranks is going to have a bit of a challenge finding coaching staff.

At issue as well is the compensation that Ottawa may try to seek in exchange for releasing Maas from his contract in Ottawa. Although technically no compensation is owed, from a professional courtesy point of view, Edmonton may be willing to concede something. It is just a maybe however. I don't think that Edmonton has received anything at all from Sask. for what could be described as nothing short of a shredding of their coaching staff. Time will tell.

Apparently the league decided Monday that the issue of compensation for the Ottawa Redblacks from the Edmonton Eskimos for signing Jason Maas as their new HC is going to be settled by mediation. This may well be new territory for the league. The custom up to present is that teams wouldn't stand in the way of their coaches from talking to other teams if the position they were going to was a promotion from their current position. Compensation hasn't been an issue in the past for teams losing their coaches but if this results in some kind of gain back for the Redblacks, it is going to put a whole new face on signing coaches away from other teams. I'm not sure that this is going to be good for coaches and upward mobility. If teams start worrying about how much compensation they may have to pay for hiring a coach from another team, it may not be result in interest from the hiring teams. And how much value do you put on a coach anyway. Just how much did that QB coach contribute to the Grey Cup?

And what about Edmonton. They have lost a ton of their staff. Will this open the door for them to compensation for the los of some of their staff? When you think about some of the coach pilfering that has gone on in recent years, it makes the prospect of compensation dizzying. It will also change the structure of contracts with coaches as well. You can be sure that some coaches will be wanting clauses in their contracts specifying that "no compensation" be requested if they receive offers from another team. Or by contrast demanding more money in exchange for not having such clauses or having longer terms which might make compensation greater for teams. This will be interesting.